SENSing Inner BodiLy State: Understanding the Role of Interoception in obEsity (SENSIBLE)

Istituto Auxologico Italiano

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Body Representation; Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: The crossmodal dual-task

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06855251

21C404

Details and patient eligibility

About

Successfully perceiving the flow of interoceptive cues and integrating them with exteroceptive information are fundamental aspects of countering the body's inherent instability and guaranteeing homeostatic regulation. This process deeply affects cognitive/emotional functioning and general health. Recently, it has been suggested that an important signature underpinning obesity might be an interoceptive dysfunction in perceiving internal body signals and/or integrating them with information from the external environment. There is evidence that interoceptive deficits correlate with Body Mass Index (BMI), but it is still largely unclear how different measures and facets of interoception are related to high BMI and eating behaviour. Within this framework, it is mandatory to understand the role of interoception in obesity at perceptual, cognitive, and emotional levels. One open issue regards the relationships between interoceptive signals and the reactivity to external food cues.

Enrollment: 32 estimated patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 55 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Right-handed individuals diagnosed with obesity
• In rehabilitative treatment at the Istituto Auxologico

Exclusion criteria

• Concurrent neurological, neurodevelopmental (e.g., autism), motor, somatosensory and/or psychiatric disorders

Trial design

32 participants in 2 patient groups

Cases

Description:

Right-handed women diagnosed with obesity are consecutively recruited during their rehabilitative treatment at the Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, San Giuseppe Hospital (Italy). Concurrent neurological, neurodevelopmental (e.g., autism), motor, somatosensory and/or psychiatric disorders are exclusion criteria.

Treatment:

Behavioral: The crossmodal dual-task

Controls

Description:

Age-matched, right-handed, healthy women (i.e., with no history of eating disorders) are recruited outside the hospital through personal contacts of the researchers and word-of-mouth.

Treatment:

Behavioral: The crossmodal dual-task